I had an epiphany about why BlueSky's forever invite system is pissing me off so much.

It's because it's designed-to.

Right now, a bunch of the talented people I follow are semi-gleefully posting their accounts as they get their golden tickets into the cool new place. And talented people, as they get their very few invites, they are inviting their cool talented friends to go hang out, but otherwise the rabble who only followed or commissioned them have to stay on the outside, because there aren't enough invites to go around.

That breeds resentment. It immediately shows folks where they are in the pecking order, and a majority of folks are going to realize they are lower than they felt they were or want to be.

And what makes Social Networks the most money? Angry people showing up to start drama. There are already folks starting to clap-back at artists posting their bluesky profiles going "STOP ASKING US TO FOLLOW YOU THERE. WE CAN'T YET. THAT'S BY DESIGN. THERE AREN'T ENOUGH INVITES FOR THE NORMIES" and the FIRST thing a lot of the normies are gonna do when they get on bluesky are gonna go digging in people's prior posts looking for 'God. this place is so fun and free without all the fuckin' normies', doing whatever the bluesky equivalent of a QRT is, and reading them for filth right there in public.

And bam: The artist and their followers are now embroiled in drama, staying extra long and providing bluesky with extra ad views, probably paying bluesky for some extra features like the ability to quiet-block whatever normie or make extra-long rebuttal posts and post higher quality GIFs about how the normie's mother is a whore.

And yeah, the artists being like "I AM SO GODDAMN HAPPY I GOT CHOOSENED IN THE GREAT BLUESKY CHOOSENING" is... not helping. And that goes double for the artists that loudly flounce other twitter alternatives for not having "good engagement" when they only made 8 posts and didn't interact with anyone else...

@EppyNWS If it is of any consolation, I've found very little "engagement" for my work as a music maker and otherwise artist on Bluesky. The value seems to be majority placed on posting like a dril wannabe and nothing else

That aside, if you would like an invite code, I have one

@cmdr_nova I appreciate it, but at this point, I'm not going to join until I can walk-in.

I have always hated the "artificially long line around the block that makes a place seem more popular than it is" business model. My reaction is always "Wow, you seem to have a very vexing 'too many customers' problem. I will make sure I don't add to it and make sure everyone else knows they shouldn't add to it either."